Bob Anderson: A Comic-Book Origin Story

Okay, welcome to this exclusive Empower Network Inner Circle interview. And because you're listening to this, you're in the right place at the right time. My name is Chris Rushlow, your host, your designated driver through the cyber waves. Just a quick reminder to block out all distractions, all background noises. You have all heard this very many times before.

You want to be tuned in for this one, especially today, folks. Don't forget Skype and email as well. So I want to set the stage here. For a lot of you out there in Internet land, we tune into these interviews because we're looking to understand what makes this whole thing work. We look forward to this time where we can get inside the minds of some of the most skilled and accomplished marketers on the planet.

We're inspired by the stories that we hear, where we find everyday people changing their lives through the power of the Internet. We listen in and we realize that the how-tos of this business can normally be seen on a YouTube video or a tutorial video in the back office or even the 15K per month formula. We find that even at the levels of success that these marketers have achieved, they attribute most of their success to the emotional lessons that permeate every aspect of our lives. We find that there really is true meaning and depth behind the core commitments that have been carefully put together by the founding leaders for the up-and-coming next wave of Empower Network. We start to understand what makes a marketer successful, that it's not the latest trick or secret, but the consistent, disciplined mindset that wins the race.

We find out that at the end of the rainbow, there is no pot of gold, and the real secret is that there is no secret, just steady application of a few simple actions over a consistent period of time. So today, I have a special treat for you. We're going to take you back, way back. I'm talking old school. I'm talking real.

I'm talking raw, uncut, bare bones in your face, just getting the job done. You see, today I have someone on the line that has lived and breathed this mentality. I'm talking about someone who has built their network marketing business to a team of over 55,000 people and having made multiple seven figures in the industry. When it comes down to it, he's a workhorse, and he's smiling every minute while he does it. He's an inspiring leader who sets the example for his team and has inspired thousands upon thousands to change.

I've heard this from many, many people that I've dealt with about this man. He's a seasoned industry veteran who fought through overwhelming loss in his personal life and even beat prostate cancer all in the same year. He has resurrected his career here at Empower Network, and ladies and gentlemen, my honor, my privilege, Mr. Bob Anderson. How are you, my friend?

Hey, Chris. Man, I don't know if I can live up to that introduction. That was pretty phenomenal. I feel really good. Well, so do I.

So do I. So do I. Yeah. Let me kind of take everybody back a little bit. First of all, I'm what's called the baby boomer of the group.

I turned 57 last year. I'll be 58 years old this year. When I look in the mirror, I see the age, but when I'm not looking in the mirror, I still feel like I'm 25 years old with my attitude and my drive and the things that I still want to accomplish in my life that I haven't yet. So age really has no barrier on success. You know, especially in a business like this, in the real world, it seems to have some kind of a barrier with jobs and stuff.

People look at you differently as you get older. But, you know, in this industry, it's actually a gift to get older and have the wisdom and the mistakes that you went through and the successes that you went through to where you can put it all together and utilize that. So what I'd like to do is maybe share with everybody where I came from, as you put years ago. It makes you sound really old, but let's start back when, back in 1972 when I got out of high school, I had a dream of accomplishing something, of making some money. It was always for me, lifestyle was always in my head built around the income that you make.

So, back in high school, back in the early 70s, late 60s, I get these books, when you're trying to decide which you want to be. And so that's what I thought I wanted to be. But I got out of high school and I started college, and pretty soon I realized in college that they don't care if you come to class or not. So it's much easier to go to the beach for the day than to go to class. So I found myself dropping everything.

But I was taken, so I wouldn't fail it. I wasn't really mature enough to go to school back then, at that age. So I decided that I'll take the easy way out, so to speak. And my next door neighbor was president of the local electrician's union. And so I knocked on his door, had a conversation with him, went down, took the test.

And I got started at an early age, 19 years old, in my career as an electrician. Went to four years of trade school. And thought that's what I would be my whole life. And I kind of enjoyed working with my hands and doing that kind of stuff. But as time went on, I realized that you can only make so much money when you're trading your time for hours.

And I was making good money and I was good enough to where I could get side jobs to make more money. And pretty soon I found myself working my day job, getting off my day job, going to my night job, and then working all day Saturday. And I had no time with my family. And so I became an opportunity seeker in my mid-20s, searching for something, like, what's out there?

And I tried lots of things. I dabbled in mail order for a little while because that was kind of fascinating. But I read the books. I tried some stuff. I didn't have any success with it.

I actually sold smoke detectors door to door. I mean, this is back when every house out there didn't have a smoke detector in it. And it was kind of like the new thing on the block. Like, smoke detectors are, wow.

So I went door to door selling smoke detectors, and I tried that for a while. And that didn't work real well. Then I bought myself a VHS video camera and started videotaping weddings to make a few extra dollars on the weekends. I just couldn't really find a niche.

Couldn't find my way. And my first experience with network marketing was kind of a negative thing. I was in my mid to late 20s. And I get a phone call from the brother-in-law saying, hey, we got this...

We got something really important we got to tell the family. And you need to get babysitters for the kids and meet here at the house on Friday night. And here we are. My wife and I were thinking, oh, my God, what's going on? Something wrong or whatever.

Well, listen, I got nothing against this company, but I don't like the way some people do business. I was what you call ambushed. You get babysitters for the kids. You drive across town. You think you're going to hear something valid, important with the family.

And they pull the curtain back. And it's an Amway meeting. Yeah. So seriously, we got up and left because I was angry that we went through everything we went through to get there and find out that's what it was.

So it kind of turned me off a little bit from network marketing. And some people, I don't know about everybody, but a lot of people have epiphanies that happen in their life. Things that are like real milestones that make you stand up. And...

Think about your life and think what's going on. And for me, that happened July 1982. I was 27 years old. It was a Friday afternoon. It was right before 4th of July.

I'm not sure the exact date. I'd have to look at the newspaper article to get the exact date. But I know it was early July 1982. I was in a hurry because we were going water skiing that weekend. And my last stop was at this place, Saddleback College in Orange County, California.

And they had a problem with the lighting in the library there. And I had to stop by and figure out what the problem was and get it fixed before I could take off for the day. And I was in a hurry. And that's the last thing you want to do when you're an electrician working with something you can't see, taste, or smell is being in a hurry, especially something that travels the speed of light, 186,000 miles a second.

And so the problem ended up being that this was the high-rise building on this campus. And this electrical panel that I needed to work on controlled the entire building. And it was a 1,600-amp panel, okay?

And it was a 100-amp, 480-volt circuit breaker. And I don't know if anybody out there knows much about electricity, but that's a lot. 480 volts will definitely knock the heck out of you and kill you if you're not careful. And especially 1,600 amps behind it. And they wouldn't let me shut the panel down.

I had to do what I needed to do. I needed to take out the bad disconnect, put in a new one, which I had. So, again, I was in a hurry. I was angry because they wouldn't let me shut it down. So I taped up my screwdriver really good.

Back then, the rules were so different than they are today, with OSHA coming on line and safety methods being different. So I didn't take any safety precautions. It's really stupid. Sometimes when you're that age, you think you're...

Invincible, right? Like nothing can happen to you. And so I went in and there's three screws that you have to remove to take this thing off of the hot bus. Now, this bus is live. It's hot.

This panel, to give you a visual, is about 30 feet long and about 10 feet high and about 8 feet deep. Okay, that's how big this panel is I'm working on, right? Remember, 30 feet long, right? So I go in there to this little area where I'm going to take out this disconnect that's about 2 feet long and about 8 inches high.

And I got three screws to remove. So I stick my screwdriver in and I remove the one screw, which is on the A phase. I stuck it on the B phase because there's an A, B, and a C phase in electricity. And I stuck it on the B and it wouldn't budge. And I'm like, ah, man.

So I ran out to my truck and I got my big screwdriver. Again, I was in a hurry and I didn't think. I didn't tape it up when I went back in. So I stuck my screwdriver in the panel, and at 186,000 miles a second, my screwdriver went to ground. In the panel and the entire switchboard, that 30-foot long switchboard, went up like napalm.

And I had a 40,000-degree ball of flame completely engulf my body. To give you an idea of the power of electricity at this stage, I knocked out power from Saddleback Valley to the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, which was about three cities, about 20 miles. And to give you a further explanation of how powerful this was, about three miles away, on Alicia Parkway, I blew a manhole cover, a street manhole cover, 20 feet in the air. Okay, that's how powerful this explosion was. When I came out of this room, my forehead was hanging down in my face.

My ears were peeled forward so I could see them. I could see my lips from my eyes sticking down because they were so puffed out from the burn. I was covered with second-degree burns, you know, from my ulcers.

I was all over my face, my arms, my neck, my hands. My left hand was a skeleton. It was seriously just there was no blood, no meat. On the bottom side, I could see all the bones and everything in the hand. It burned it and cauterized it at the same time.

My right hand was a web, like a skin web from the thumb to the little finger, just connected all the way across. And just to give you an idea of the power of what happened, this accident took me six months to recover from. I was in surgery twice a day for eight days. They would hold me down and pull copper and metal fragments out of my bones, my hands, my arms, scrub it, you know, 106 degree whirlpool. It was just unbelievable what I had to go through, and they wrapped me in pig skin because it's the closest thing to human skin, and your body believes that it's real skin and starts rejuvenating the skin under it. But for six months, I couldn't use either hand. I couldn't feed myself. I couldn't go to the bathroom by myself. Nothing, for six months. So during that six months, I had a long time to think. Oh my goodness, I just had an epiphany in that six months, that I'm 27 years old, I don't want to do this the rest of my life. I would see these older guys, in their 60s, 70s, on the job site, climbing ladders and carrying tools, and I just thought, I don't want to be that person. I want something different in my life. So I had a burning desire to make a change in my life, and I answered every ad out there. I looked and I looked and I talked and I tried to find something. And remember, that happened to me in July of 1982. Okay, well, February of 1992, 10 years later. This is 10 years of trying to find a better way. I opened up a little rag we have here in California called the Penny Saver, and I saw an ad in there. And the ad — and I'm not the kind of guy that would normally do this kind of thing — but I looked at the ad, I read it, and it interested me. It didn't really tell me a whole lot. It just said, hey, call this number and get some information about making money working from home. And I called and I listened to about a six minute voicemail that really didn't tell me anything, but it enticed me to spend 24 dollars to get the information. So I figured, what the heck, 24 bucks, and I spent the 24 bucks and I got this book in the mail. And in this book, the first part of the book was full of junk about getting grant deeds and stuff like that, and the back part of the book was full of other junk. And in the middle, right in the middle, there was a little bit of information about a network marketing company that looked interesting. And I don't know if I should mention the name of the company on the call here, Chris, or not, but it was gonna matter. Okay, well, it's a good call — Hey, Chris, is there any questions you want to ask at the end of the recording? I don't have a lot of questions right now, so I'm gonna try to just touch on some of these right now. Okay, well, the company was — what happened, I didn't know at the time when I got this, but the company was Herbalife.

And at the time, ironically enough, I wasn't looking to get healthy or lose weight. I was looking to make money. But my nickname at the time was Buffalo Bob. I was 320 pounds. I had hair halfway down my back.

I had a big, huge beard. I looked like an overweight Grateful Dead. And I was proud of the fact that I could actually rest my beer on my belly while I stood up. Bob, I got to say something here. This is, as I'm listening to this, I mean, it's already to a point where it's an amazing story.

But, you know what, I think I realized your secret. I think I got you figured out now. You see, I've heard this story before, and I think it's been in a couple comic books I read as a kid. You know, the villain or the hero, they have some kind of accident happen.

Like the Hulk. Or something like that, where some kind of accident, or you fall in mutagen, like Ninja Turtles even, right? More my generation. And after that, you're just changed. You're a superhero.

You walk on water, glow in the dark, leap tall buildings in a single bound. You're starting to make a lot more sense here now, you know? Yeah, I'll tell you, it really did change my thinking. That accident absolutely changed my thinking. And so when I got that book and I got that information and I saw...

And I didn't know what Herbalife was. I mean, I'd driven down the 405 freeway for years and seen the Herbalife sign on the building there, or by the off Century Boulevard by the airport there. And all I thought was, Herbalife, dude, herbals, herb, you know? I never thought it was a company or you could make money or anything like that. It didn't hit me like that.

And so when I called the guy who sent me the information, his name was Joe Flaherty, and I actually called this guy like 10, 12 times in a period of like three or four days. I mean, I got bugged because he wouldn't call me back, so I kept calling. I kept leaving messages, call me, call me, call me. Well, come to find out, he was out of town for a couple of days. And he finally called me back, and I went over, and he gave me his address.

Fortunately, he lived only a few miles from me. And I went over, and I knocked on this guy's door, and he opened up his door, and he had a pair of Levi's on, a T-shirt, and no shoes, and I thought, huh, I like this guy already, because I'm kind of a laid-back kind of guy. And so we went in and sat down and started talking, come to find out it was Herbalife, and I found out all about Herbalife and whatnot. And I decided, well, I like Joe. I like him.

And there's one thing that I can say that I've learned in 20 years of doing this business, that when you find the right opportunity, it's really not the company, and it's really not the product. It's the people that you hook up with, and it's the system that they have to use. Those are the two most important things in our business, in our industry: the people you connect yourself with and the system you have to work your business with. There's a lot of good companies and a lot of good products that you could plug both of those variables into and make a lot of money. Okay, so for me, those are the two most important things.

So when I met Joe, I really took a liking to him. He was really laid-back. No pressure, you don't have to buy, no big deal. So I really liked him, and I was drawn towards him. So I decided to get started and got on the products.

I had remarkable results on the products right off the bat. I ended up in a six-month period, I lost 80 pounds on the products, cut my hair, shaved my beard. I became a whole different person. But my thinking process started to change.

I really started to think more like an entrepreneur. I was surrounding myself with like-minded people, with other entrepreneurs, people like Joe Flaherty. And so my thinking process started to change. And so I started working with Joe, and Joe was an absolute — or is, I don't say was, is — an absolute marketing genius. And things started to evolve.

We started working together, and one thing led to another. And any system that you come up with has an evolution process that it goes through, and an evolution process can't stop. Anything that you develop, any system that you come up with, in my experience anyway — I don't profess to be an expert, I'm only talking from my world, my experience — has about an 18-month window of operation where it's going to work really well, and you've got to change again. You've got to add. You've got to take away.

You've got to make things different, make things better. So it was a constant evolution. And Joe, I attached myself to him because I knew that he had the skill that I needed to succeed. See, I'm not a good general. I'm the best lieutenant out there, but I'm not a good general.

I need to attach myself to somebody that is a good general, that can guide me, give me what I need, and then I can run like crazy. And that's my skill. So Joe started working on developing, further developing the system, and it went from a book with an ad in the Penny Saver to — as the group started to grow and we started to get some internal success, because it's kind of like this business is almost like the cart before the horse type thing. You advertise success in the beginning, before you really have the success, so you can get the success — if that makes sense, what I just said.

But then as you start to get the success, then you can really start to expand on what you're doing. So using Joe's basic system, I was able to create a lot of activity. I signed up 100 people my first six months in the business, never doing anything like this in my life. And I had a little office. It was built in my garage.

I had an old army desk in there. There was clothes hanging everywhere, and that's where I worked. I'd get off work. I'd come home. I'd pat the dog on the head, say hi to the kids, and get in the garage, and I'd get on the phone.

And Joe was giving me these leads from these people that were ordering this $24 book, and I was calling these people, and they were signing up, and it was incredible what was happening. So Joe's juices started to churn a little bit, and figure out how can we expand? How can we go beyond? What are we doing? And he started creating a book, a little book that you could actually take a postage stamp, a first-class stamp, and put it in the mail.

And we were buying Opportunity Seekers lists, peel-and-stick labels, and putting them on the book. And the book, like I said, weighed less than an ounce, so you could mail it. The Opportunity Seeker would get the book in the mail, and they would read it, testimonials and stuff like that. But, again, you're kind of pulling people through a system. You didn't really give away the farm with that book.

They didn't know it was Herbalife. They didn't know it was network marketing. They just saw all these testimonials of people having success and doing good things, and that book itself evolved. Joe went through three or four or five different versions of that book as we grew, and then eventually we came out with a book called The Bob Book, which was, after about a year of working with Joe — and to make that kind of money in a month, it was absolutely life-changing.

And it showed my picture of my tool belt on and my hard hat on. And it was a lot of fun. And then the next picture, the split picture, showed in front of my Dove Canyon house here in California on the golf course, in front of my brand-new Mercedes and a suit and tie. So that was the before and after picture on the book.

And we started mailing those books. And then we started developing a package, because it's all about the presentation when people see what you're doing. So we started putting more — more people started coming on board, and we ended up opening up a warehouse. And we put together a room. We had a really nice box that had work-from-home on it.

It had cutouts in the box. We made a VHS tape with a lot of testimonials on it. We made a roundtable discussion with a cassette tape — that kind of labels how old the stuff is. And then we had a spot for a business card to go in there. And we sold this package for $39.

So what we were doing at that time is we set up voicemails everywhere, the local voicemails. So when you mail the book, they would call. They would call a local number, and that was back before 800 numbers and all that kind of stuff for voicemails. And we started running ads from San Diego County all the way to San Francisco in California. We were kind of stuck in California.

And it was going really, really well. But pretty soon, we signed up so many people in these areas that everybody was stepping on everybody. It's like, what do we do now? We've got to get out of California. So we started buying out-of-state leads and expanding.

And growing. But in the meantime, what was happening behind the scenes, what people didn't know that we're using Joe's system, that we're using the system that we worked on, is that behind the scenes, there was a lot of troubles along the way. So a lot of money was spent trying to fine-tune what we were doing. And then what started happening is because we were expanding so far, we spent a lot of time justifying the book.

You've got a lot of these small towns out there with these local district attorneys, that people would get the book in the mail, and they would actually take the time to send it in to their local district attorney and say this is a fraud, that these people are ripping people off. So we were spending a lot of time justifying the book. It was like they were just doing everything they could to try to shut us down constantly. It's like when they see it succeed, they've got to try to pull you back down.

Yeah, yeah. And so when I look at what Dave and Dave are going through here with Empower Network, I just laugh because it's like, yes, I feel for the problems they're having, but it's nothing. People are flipping out over nothing compared to what we went through back in those days and what Joe went through. And then it came to the point where I passed everybody up in the company. And believe it or not, because we weren't the typical Herbalife distributor, because I didn't wear the button.

I mean, their motto back then was use, wear, talk, right? You wear the button, you use the products, and you talk. That's how you built your business back in those days. That's how everybody built their business back in those days. Is that one of those lose weight now, ask me how?

Lose weight now, ask me how. That was the biggest tool Mark Hughes ever came out with in Herbalife was that button. Lose weight now, ask me how. But I wasn't the kind of guy that wanted to wear that button. I swear I put that button on, and it would feel like it was 15 feet big, and I couldn't get out the door.

I just couldn't do it. I wasn't that kind of person. That's why I gravitated towards systems and working with people like Joe Flaherty, who actually invented the funded proposal that has evolved into what it is today. But on top of all of that, now Joe is taking hits from every district attorney out there.

All sorts of legal problems happening. Now, all of a sudden, he gets a phone call. We got a phone call, and him and I are called into Herbalife to the chief attorney at Herbalife. Now, again, Mark Hughes was a great man. He passed away several years ago, but he was a great man.

He had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. He was sheltered from a lot of this legal stuff that was going on. But we — he got called in to Herbalife by the chief attorney. David Addison was his name.

He's no longer with the company. But we sat down at his desk, and he went off on us like you can't believe. I mean, he was like screaming at the top of his lungs. We pushed our — you know, that thing where you put your hands on the desk and push your seat back because you're taken back, like, oh, my God, what's going on here? And I can't even repeat the words that he said to us.

They were so bad. But the bottom line is, after he got done yelling at us, he pointed his finger at Joe Flaherty and said, and you're suspended without pay. And then he wanted us to bring down all of our materials, our books, our videos, everything, the truckloads of them, and bring them down there so the company could get them and burn them, because we were causing problems for the company. Right.

So Joe was actually on full suspension without check. He held his check for 12 months. So for 12 months, he did not get paid. But what we were doing, we knew what we were doing was right. It was legal and it was good.

So we kept moving forward. Joe took the blunt of it for everybody. People didn't know what was going on behind the scenes. The other distributors, the other people that were making a lot of money from using the system had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. Bob, 12 months.

12. 12 months. 12 months. So to have that just cut off for 12 months, thank God that he was actually making money on selling the books, the videos, the audios — on the back end, on the system, there was both in profit that he was making, because that's the only thing that kept the legal people fed, that kept the system going, that kept the warehouse open, that kept all of us making money and growing in our business.

So, you know, as Empower Network was growing, I just laughed at myself when I'd hear people going, ah, Dave and Dave are just making all kinds of money with this deal. Well, thank God they're making money. Thank God they are, because then they can afford to pay the legal fees. They can afford to protect us, to keep the system operating, to keep things going, to do the upgrades, to fix things when they break down. Thank God they're making money.

So that's what kept us afloat, was the fact that he was making money. But, you know, Joe was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And he put together a system — this was a constant evolution of what we went through. But as the system evolved, we actually had — his father wrote a computer program.

I can't remember the name of the language that the computer program was written on, but I'm sure it's archaic, you know, to what's going on today. But that program gave the packages that we were selling their value. And because we had something that nobody in the industry had — I mean, everybody in the industry was doing hotel meetings, belly to belly, putting flyers out on cars. That was the way you built your business back in those days. And nobody had what we had.

So everybody was attracted to what we were doing. So he put together an executive system to where when somebody signed up at Herbalife, they had three packages that they could choose from that came with the books, the videos, the audios. And I'll tell you, I would get somebody on the phone and on the first call, I would be able to close them as a supervisor with Herbalife, which was about a $3,200 commitment, and another $2,500 for a system so they could start operating right away, simply because they had been through the system, because they got the book in the mail, they called the voicemail, they ordered the information kit, which came — by the way, we didn't have merchant accounts back then. We did everything COD UPS.

Oh, my goodness. So I would sell 50 to 100 of these packages that were $39.95 at the time, okay? I would sell 50 to 100 of these a week. I would use a handcart to take them out to my porch, okay?

And UPS would come pick them up, and they would deliver them all COD to the customers. But what was really cool was getting these envelopes from UPS on a regular basis, to have all these checks on them, right? So that's how we built our system, was on COD. So people are complaining about a merchant account, come on, get over it.

I mean, there's solutions out there. We built our business on COD. Cash on demand. In fact, we nicknamed our group the COD Group. We even had t-shirts that said the COD Group.

We were outcast. I would go to an Herbalife event, and none of the old-timers would have anything to do with me. They wouldn't talk to me. They would shun us because we didn't use word talk. But because of the growth that we were having, we actually ended up having the fastest growing organization in the company.

But because of the growth that we were going through, Mark Hughes finally took light of what we were doing. And he actually called us into his office. Shortly after that, the chief attorney, David Addison, was fired. Joe's suspension was lifted. In fact, I think Mark gave him an extra, like, $50,000 or something bonus on top of it.

Because Mark was a true entrepreneur. He really liked what we were doing. And from that point forward, he put me on the road as a company trainer, and I traveled all over the world teaching other people how to do what we were doing. So, that was the birth of the company. Yeah.

And that's the first step of the funded proposal. And with that system, I was able to personally recruit over 2,500 people. Now, that's at the supervisor level in Herbalife, which is a $3,200 commitment. So, over 2,500 people at $3,200, I was able to bring into my Herbalife business. And lots of people in that group got rich.

I know that I'm personally responsible for, indirectly, helping at least 25,000 people become millionaires in Herbalife in my own group, with that system. But worldwide, Joe, I'm sure, is responsible for well over a half a billion dollars worth of business because of that system. We went from being the outcast and the enemy to everybody wanting what we had. Instead of them shunning us, now they were putting their arms around us saying, hey, give us what you got. They wanted it.

What Dave and Dave are going through right now, I can really empathize with them. But, as far as everybody out there going, oh, my God, what's going on with Empower? You know what? This is nothing. I mean, we're going to get through this stuff. This company is going to grow like crazy.

And people are going to be very much better off because of it. So, I appreciate what they're going through, but people need to understand that on a big scale, it's really not that big a deal. We'll get through all this stuff. Yeah. When you take a step back, Bob, and you just look at it for what it is, I mean, the similarities between what happened with you and Joe and what happened with Dave and Dave is that you both were doing something that had never been done before.

And when that happens, there is always resistance from those that don't want to see the status quo changed, in many different arenas, in many different ways, for many different reasons. And when you interrupt that much and create that much resistance, you're going to have to step back and create that much change that quickly, and do things that people aren't used to. You get people afraid. You get people wondering what the heck's going on. And so people don't like to take risks.

I mean, when we look at all that really has been, it's some bandwidth, because we did something that caused so many people to draw to us from the beginning, and then… Yeah, sure. The largest processor of credit cards in the world said you guys are growing too fast. Yeah. How can that — that's probably the best problem to have. It's kind of like not being able to answer all your leads.

That's a million dollar story down the road. What's that? That's a million dollar story down the road. It really is. It is.

And it's funny, because I just get flabbergasted when I have somebody in a team that contacts me and says, you know what? I just can't do this. I'm waiting around for money. It's been nothing but issues. I have a hard time getting on the site.

Nothing's working here. What kind of crap have you sent me here? And I'm thinking to myself, that's short-sighted vision. I mean, if you just have some faith on what's happening here, this is just the beginning. It's kind of funny.

We were listening to a call a couple of nights ago. We were both listening to it. I even remember seeing your emails about it. Raven, Raven got on there. We're going to be interviewing her real soon too.

And she said something that was so true. I remember seeing it in one of the chats. And I couldn't say it word for word. You might be able to, but it was something to the effect of, if the universe is going to push back on us this hard, then we must be doing something so significant. There must be such a greater purpose and such a huge purpose for what we're doing.

And something to that effect, that's right. That's exactly what she said. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. The resistance you encounter from that — we've got to be doing something right.

I'm just thankful that we're here, at this time. Being a part of this is the amazing thing, and this story, I mean, to see that, it's really refreshing, Bob, to listen and hear it happen before — everybody in Empower, they need to hear this. They need to hear that this isn't the first time that something like this has happened. And to be able to benefit from the perspective you have, being able to live through that and see that people deal with this and have dealt with this, and that what you came out on the other side to see the successes you've had — I mean, it's amazing. It really is amazing.

Well, they say, Chris, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I've been — they've tried to kill me so many times, I feel like Superman. But I'll tell you what, in long story short, what ended up happening is that little book that Joe Flaherty created, believe it or not, he sold over 25 million copies of that book. 25 million. I don't know what it takes to become a bestseller, but I know it's way less than that. But 25 million — we had a warehouse where we had pallets and pallets of those books going out every day, to distributors around the country, people were mailing 5,000 at a time. It was, and then the company caught on, they quit giving us a hard time, and everybody started doing it. Everybody came out with their own piece.

And then the company actually came out with a system similar to what Joe developed. So at first we were the enemy and then we were the best friend, so to speak. Well, that's what always happens. Right, right. Exactly.

It can happen with Empower. So many people feel threatened, and it's like, why would you ever feel threatened? The only thing we want to do is try to control people and destroy people. And all we want to do is lift people up. Why do you think we call it Empower Network?

Exactly. Exactly. And you know something, I can tell you this too, Chris, and I hope people are listening really close here. This isn't all the problems that Empower Network's going to have. There's going to be more problems.

I know there will be, and we'll go over, we'll get over them. We'll get through them, and the people that hang on and get through the problems are really going to benefit in a huge way down the road, and people need to realize that anything worthwhile — I mean, if we had absolutely no problems from day one, that would be kind of weird. I mean, I don't know of any company that started up that didn't go through — and like Dave and Dave talked about, they didn't go through the jungle without having problems. I mean, we had things come up, like, things are going great. We got through all the problems at the company.

Things are really going great. And then, I think it was like 1997 or 98, I'm not sure which, UPS went on strike. I don't know if you remember that or not. It was nationwide. UPS went on strike.

They weren't moving their trucks. And there was two problems. One, Herbalife, the company of Herbalife itself, this is a multi-billion dollar company. That was the only method they had of shipping their products, was UPS.

Okay. They didn't tie into FedEx and everybody else that they do now. They just had UPS. So now we couldn't even get Herbalife products shipped to our customers. We were shipping our packages out UPS, boom, down, so my check dropped through the roof, with that, but we got through it.

We got over it. It was a learning experience. What do you learn coming out of that? Right. You learn, you got to have more than one option.

So not only did Herbalife add more options into what they were doing, we added more options into what we were doing. So you learn, you have a mistake, things hurt for a little bit. You learn from it. I mean, what is it, Tony Robbins says, there's no such thing as a mistake, as long as you learned one thing from it, and we learned with all these mistakes.

And then problem after problem happens. And that's what makes you stronger, is learning how to deal with these problems. I mean, the biggest problem of all, in 2000, the founder of the company, Mark Hughes, that everybody loved and adored, died. But look at what's happening with the company today. Back then, when Mark died, the company was doing a couple of billion dollars.

Now I think they're doing five, close to $6 billion. So there isn't a problem big enough that a company that's worth its salt can't get through and come out on the other end. And I see, with these guys have developed with Empower Network, as something that's going to be here forever. I'm here to ride out any problem that comes out, because I know that it's temporary. And that this is one of the greatest things that have ever come around.

And ironically enough, with me, I did really well with Herbalife. And then my personal life kind of fell apart on me. I was really good with business; I wasn't really good with my personal life. Long story short, I got a divorce.

We were living on the beach in Hawaii and a beautiful home and had a great life. And all that just went away. I literally packed the suitcase. I said, I don't want to go to court.

I don't want to fight. Here's everything, take it, go. I packed one suitcase, got on an airplane, came back to California, started my life over again. And that was in 2005. I said something a few minutes ago, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Well, when I came back in 2005, I moved in with my sister, who was my best, best friend at the time. And my brother-in-law, because you got to rely on family when you're going through tough times. Right. And I needed emotional support, so to speak. And four months after I moved in with them, they were killed.

Both of them were killed in a car accident. It was like, oh my God. I mean, it's just like my life turned upside down again, but you got to keep going. Right. And all this stuff I'm saying right now happened in a six month period.

So I moved back, four months later they were killed in a car accident. A month later, my mother, who suffered from Parkinson's disease for 18 years, dies. The day my mother dies, I get a phone call from my doctor telling me that I've got prostate cancer, that happened the same day. So it's like, again, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Right. So within a couple of weeks, I was in surgery, had a radical surgery and my prostate removed, because the cancer had greatly advanced, a lot faster than it should have. And then I went back to work, and 12 months later, my PSA test elevated again, my cancer came back, and I had to go through 27 radiation treatments in a row, and go through all that. And up until this point, I was pretty much — I came back from Hawaii and I'd lost my Herbalife business and I didn't really have a direction I was going. I was kind of lost.

My family had fallen apart on me, and relatives were dying, and didn't know what I was going to do. So the only thing that I knew to do at the time was I was an electrician. I mean, I was born — you know, I got out of high school, became an electrician. I learned the craft. I knew I could make money doing it.

I actually went down to the union hall, found the books, and went back to work as an electrician because I knew I could put food on the table and feed myself doing that. So I went back to work, and I was fortunate enough to get a really good job close to home. And it was a relief because now I could start making some money again. And I kind of enjoyed the fact that I'd spent 15 years working in a home office, isolated, mostly on an island. So I didn't have a lot of belly to belly friends anymore.

So it was kind of fun going back to work, to work with my hands again and work with the guys in the field. And I enjoyed that. I had fun doing that. But the ironic thing was, about two weeks into that job, the owner of the company comes out to the job site and he recognized me from network marketing. And he goes, oh my God, you're Bobby Anderson.

I was like, okay, who cares? And so he invited me into the office that night for a meeting, and long story short, within two weeks I was out of the office and I was managing their workforce, the field. And together we started a solar electric company. And, believe it or not, they put me in charge of lead generation for the solar, because that's where my skillset was.

I wasn't really a very good electrician, as you can hear from my earlier part of my story, right? I wasn't that great. I was okay. So I was much better on the phone and doing things like that. So they put me in charge of lead generation, and I helped grow the second largest solar company in Southern California.

And then I started getting the itch again. I mean, that was a couple of years of my time, and I started getting the itch again for that freedom and independence. Although thank God that I found the job that I did and the people knew me, because they knew me, my personality. They knew that I needed that freedom and independence to do the job that I was doing. So I didn't have a job where I had to be in at a certain time, go home at a certain time.

I didn't have to report to anybody, let me have total freedom on that job, which was great, but I didn't have the freedom to make the kind of money I wanted. I didn't have the freedom to make beyond the hourly wage that they were paying me. I found myself trapped again in a situation where I was capped on what I could do, but I knew that I was worth more than that because I knew what I had accomplished in the past and I knew what I was capable of doing. So I got that itch again. And I tell you, I actually signed back up in Herbalife again, and I just couldn't find my mojo.

I couldn't get it again. It just wasn't there. I floated into like two or three other network marketing companies, just floated in, floated out. I just couldn't find what I was looking for. What I was looking for was I was looking for another Joe Flaherty.

That's what I was looking for. I was looking for another Superman to grab ahold of his cape, and I couldn't find it. I just couldn't find it. I found great people to work with. I found great companies with good products.

I just couldn't get my mojo. And then ironically, I get a phone call. This was like the beginning of 2011. I get a phone call from Joe Flaherty, because we'd kept in contact. Joe moved on with his life, and he's a very brilliant man. And he was actually — he actually makes a fortune daily on day trading stock market.

I know that's a risky business, but he's intelligent enough to where he really is one of those people that is highly succeeding at that. So that's what he moved on to do. But he called me up and he said, Bob, he said, I want you to keep an open mind. He said, I got something I want you to take a look at. Yeah.

It's kind of like, where do I find? Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, okay, Joe, I'll pay attention. Tell me what you want.

So he gave me a link to look at. So I went online and I pulled up this YouTube video, and here's this crazy long haired kid with no shirt on ranting, raving and screaming. Named David Wood. I'm going, what is this? And so then I kind of got addicted to watching him, and I started watching more and more and more.

And I realized that this kid had something special. I call him a kid because I'm 57 years old at the time, he was 29. And he had something special. I mean, he had that spark. And so I, Joe, signed up in David's primary network marketing company, I hope I can say it, Numis Network, at the time.

And, again, that was kind of like an off the wall thing for me to think about too. It's like, I wanted to do what Joe wanted. I really liked what David Wood was saying, but I was so used to selling lotions and potions, weight loss products, something like that, something tangible, that I couldn't wrap my brain around the gold and silver thing. So I held off actually getting started for a few months, but I did sign up at the lower rate, where you just lock a spot in, that type of thing. And then I came back, and because of David Wood's brilliance without me doing anything, I logged on one day and I go, my God, there's 200 people under me, I got to do this.

So I signed up and I got started, but I got to laugh to myself. It was actually Joe Flaherty that introduced me to David Wood, because I look at David Wood as my next Joe Flaherty, as my next Superman. And I know that if I hang on to the cape of Superman, that I'll get where I want to be, but I'll get from that person what I need. And in turn, the idea is that I'm going to give back with what I get. So for instance, I took everything I could take from Joe, but I made him several million dollars in the process, and I learned a lot, and I see the same thing in David Wood, and just getting to know David Sharp.

I see a lot of that in David Sharp also. These guys are brilliant. They're absolutely brilliant. And I've made my mind up that no matter what direction David goes, I'm following, because I see the brilliance there. So I tell you guys, there's going to be a lot of ups and downs in your life, a lot of ups and downs in your career, a lot of ups and downs on the job that you have or the opportunity that you're going through, but what really will get you through all that, and what's really going to get you there —

One of the things that I've learned is your undying belief in yourself. Okay. People don't fail at this type of business. Nobody fails at network marketing. Nobody fails at attraction marketing.

Nobody fails at that. What happens is they quit. Okay. They quit just before they succeed, and a good example of that, really backing up a little bit — I don't want to go backwards much, but when I signed up originally in Herbalife, Joe actually didn't directly sponsor me.

I had this guy named DeFazio, an Italian mailman in Santa Ana, California, that actually signed me up because he was in between me and Joe. And this guy actually called me once about three months into Herbalife and said, how you doing? I said, I don't know what I'm doing. And he never called me back, and he quit. He quit.

So I figured that he lost about $3 million by quitting, over the course of the year. So I tell you, you have to have a real true undying belief in what you're doing. So if I can give anything to anybody out there that's listening to this, you've got to sit down, in the quiet away from the kids, the spouse, the job, you've got to sit down and you've got to talk to yourself and you've got to find out what you really want out of life, what direction you want to go. And you've got to make your mind up, for a lot of different reasons. You don't want to just pick junk out there and say, I'm going to make my mind up.

I'm going to make this junk work. I mean, you've got to find some vehicle that's worthwhile to hang on to, people that are worthwhile to hang on to. And you've got to believe in them no matter what, no matter what happens, no matter the ups, the downs, as long as they're ethical in what they do, and that's what I see in Dave and Dave. I see that Superman, I see it, and I don't care what kind of problems these guys are going to have, because I know that they're going to get through it. I know that we're going to get through it.

And the truth of the matter is, I know they're very open about what's going on, but we probably don't even know half of what's really going on behind the scenes with what they're doing. They're probably losing sleep over things and stuff while we're out here enjoying what we're doing. And I don't get it when people tell me, well, this isn't working. I can't collect my — well, you know what? Get a PayPal account, get something, get it going, do whatever you have to do to make it happen.

Now, don't sit around with your thumb up your butt, do something, and believe in what you're doing with the nth degree, that this is it, and when you learn how to dream, I mean, so many people out there have been beat up in life, with their jobs and with their relationships and with everything out there, life can be really tough. And it's really easy if you let life do it to take your dream. There's lots of dream stealers out there. And I'll tell you, most of the dream stealers, there's some people that care about you and love you. They're going to try to hold you back from what you're doing.

Oh my God, are you still involved in that thing? That's a ripoff. Oh my God, those guys are making all the money. Your dream has to be so strong that none of that stuff matters, that you're gonna succeed no matter what. And if you can get your mindset in that position, there's no end to what you can do.

There's absolutely no end. There's no — but the industry that we're in is so beautiful because there's no cap on what you can make. When I was an electrician, you could be the best electrician in the world, but the union stated, this is how much an hour you're going to make. And these are only the hours that you can work. So this is exactly how much you can make.

And that's it. We're in an industry where it's beautiful because there's no cap on that. You want to make more, you do more. You want more freedom, do more work and you'll get it. So that's what really made me fall in love with this type of industry. You guys really got to get centered in your goals and in your dreams, to make that happen, but I'm absolutely loving it here, and I know that we've got a great future, and I can't wait to see what these guys are going to be coming up with, as time goes on, because I know that this is going to be a constant evolution, just like what Joe and I went through, back in the nineties, and Empower Network is going to be a constant moving evolution of change, and it's just going to get better and better and better.

Well, I think, oh, there's no doubt. But, you know, the thing that really, really drew me to Empower Network was I am a real techno dummy. I can't spell with a darn, sometimes spell check comes back and laughs at me because they can't even recognize the word I'm trying to spell. And I'm so handicapped that I have to go back in and redo my whole sentence for a new word that I can spell. I mean, it's that bad, you know? So when I started getting involved in my first experience in the online market was with this company, MLSP, I'm sure everybody's familiar with that.

I got involved, I signed up, and this was before I actually got to talk to David Wood, and it was a nightmare to me. It was a black hole. It was like, oh my God, I felt like I was getting nickel and dimed to death. And I'm the kind of guy that likes to buy stuff. So the first day I go in there, I get stuck in a funnel and I bought this, I bought that, I bought this.

And then all of a sudden I go, I don't know how to do this. And I was spending hours. It was like an echo chamber, like, hello, hello, hello, hello. I couldn't figure it out. So I pulled out.

And when David came out with Empower Network, it was like a godsend to me. It was like, oh my God, I can log on and start blogging and I don't have to figure out how to set anything up. I don't have to do any of that stuff. I can just go to work. This is unbelievable.

It's absolutely brilliant. So for people like me that are baby boomers, that didn't grow up with a computer, I mean, I think I had a Tandy, what was it called? A Tandy 65 or something like that, back in the late 80s or something when they came out. And I just couldn't figure it out.

I just couldn't figure out computers. So this has been a godsend for me. And I know that not only am I going to make a lot of money with Empower Network and help a lot of people, but whatever primary business, whatever direction I want to go in the future, I know now that I have a system that I can bring with me. I have a system that will work on any company out there to find me qualified entrepreneurs that have a credit card, that want to make extra money. So with that, that's powerful.

Because not only can you take Empower Network and make extra money and build an incredible residual income — the other thing that we really, really like about Empower Network is that residual income comes in all month long. I don't have to wait until the 15th or the 20th to get my money. I don't have to wait until Wednesday to find out how big my check is. Every day I log on and go, hey, I got 25 bucks deposited today.

Hey, I got a hundred bucks deposited every day. There's something going in the bank account. That's just amazing. And then the fact that I can take these people that I'm helping with Empower Network, and if they're looking for another opportunity, if they're looking for something they can use Empower Network with, I can guide them into a primary business. So it's kind of like Joe Flaherty, when he built his system, it was built around Herbalife.

The beauty of what Dave and Dave have done is they've taken what Joe did and they've made it a thousand, ten times better because they've made it portable. They've made it to where you can work any business with it. You can build any business, sell any product, and make money doing it. It's always way more money with the actual Empower than with other businesses. What I've found, that's absolute fact.

I mean, for me, I was able to put 10 grand in my pocket in the first 30 days. And I never did that with any company I ever worked. I mean, even with Herbalife, I made millions of dollars, but for the first four or five months, I didn't make anything. Nothing with Herbalife, nothing, to come in and start a business. Absolutely blew me away, so this is a gift, and I hope everybody out there treats it as a gift, and has the respect for Dave and Dave and the people that are surrounding and helping the growth of Empower Network, just know that we're going to get through all these problems, that they're going to be history.

And right now we are in a position to where we're formulating a story. Your story is everything in the marketplace. It's everything. Okay. When I was an electrician, I had to have a tool belt and my screwdrivers, my wrenches, my socket wrenches, that was what I used.

Well, in this industry, my tool belt is my stories. So I know a year or two years or three years from now, when this company is worldwide and it's growing and I'm on the phone talking to somebody going, you can't even believe what we went through when we got this thing started. It's a million dollar story. So instead of looking at what we're going through as problems, look at what we're going through as building the story that's going to make you a million dollars, because you hung on, you survived, you went through it. And so guys, learn a dream, get a dream, latch onto it, whatever it is, and don't let anybody take it from you. Don't let the naysayers that are talking negative or like that get to you, because you know the heart of David Wood, a heart of David Sharp, if you really think about it, the direction we're going and what we're going to accomplish with this business, do not let anybody take that away from you, because we have a gold mine here, an absolute gold mine.

And the only difference is, are you going to sit in the shade and watch other people go in and out of the gold mine? Are you going to get up and get that shovel and that wheelbarrow and get in there and get your share of the gold? Because it's there, it's there for the taking right now. Yes, it is. Well, Bob, I'll tell you what, most interviews, I got to ask a lot of questions.

This one, I think you've just about hit everything. That's good. I love to help, anything I can do to help. I love helping people. That speaks bigger volumes than anything else.

And when people know that, the rest is just detail. You hit it right on the head with Dave and Dave, you know, their heart. And when you see that, you know where this company is going to be, there's no doubt about it. The rest is details. And it's only a matter of time.

The problems and the hiccups we've had are merely speed bumps to slow us down so that we can make sure that when we speed up again, we don't crash. That's right. Absolutely. That's right. Well, Bob, with that, I'm going to wrap this up.

If you have any final words, any final thoughts, speak now forever, hold your peace. No, the only thing I want to say one more time, Chris, is, if you're listening to this call and you're hearing my words, just know that if your dream is big enough and strong enough, you can get through absolutely anything and you can change your life like you've never dreamed possible. And I know, because I've been there and I've lived it, and I'm going to get it back again. I'm on my way. That's inspiring.

You've completely resurrected yourself, Bob. You've overcome more than I've just about ever heard of anybody having to overcome in their life. And yet alone, you talk about what doesn't kill you, make you stronger. But there's an element here, because I've gone through things in my life. And it's just to see that dealing with all that, that emotionally, you could just still galvanize and move forward and be able to keep moving forward.

That's just amazing. If you don't move forward, you can lay down and die. So you've got to move forward. That's true. That's very true.

Well, you're an inspiration to us all, Bob. And I'm very glad we got you on the line, because people needed to hear this. They needed to hear your story. And I think a lot of people are probably going to, for a long time, come up to you at an Empower Network event and say, what was it like being engulfed in a wall of flames? That was something, let me tell you, I'll never forget that.

Oh man, that just still sticks out in my mind. That's just, wow. Southern California Edison employee brought to my office, the fuse that I blew out was three feet high and the circumference of the fuse was over a foot. Three foot high fuse, a foot around, is what I knocked out with my screwdriver. I made the 11 o'clock news on every channel.

You know, you probably don't need any coffee or stimulants or anything at this point, do you? No. Life is good. Life is good. Yes, it is.

And it's only — there's no excuses. I can't stand your excuses from people, because I've been through it all. There really isn't an excuse out there. There's really no excuse for success.

You just have to dream and you got to just push forward. Well, humor me here for a second. That's a very good point. And that's something I actually remember I wanted to ask you about. I got one question with that.

What's the dumbest excuse you've ever heard? I don't know anybody. That's easy. I just laugh when people tell me that, that they don't know anybody. It's like when you live in a cave your whole life, you don't know anybody.

I mean, there's no excuse. There's no excuse. There's no excuse. Seriously, that is to me the biggest, dumbest excuse I've ever heard. I don't know anybody.

So when you argue with people about that and you tell them that, do they oftentimes say, okay, you're right? Or do they continue to defend their position? Well, a lot of people will continue to defend their position, but those people that continue to defend their position continue to stay broke. Exactly. And Jim Rohn also said something very inspirational.

Some will, some won't. So what next? You can't get hung up on the people that won't. You got to find the people that will. Don't waste your time on the people that won't.

Don't waste your time on the dream stealers. Okay. Don't waste your time on the naysayers. Don't waste your time on the people that say that Dave and Dave are making money or nobody else. Don't waste your time on those people.

Okay. Move on to the next. Just say next, next, next. Cause there's lots of people out there. Lots of people, everybody.

There isn't a human being out there, especially when you get to be my age, that doesn't at least know a thousand people. Come on. I don't know the checker at the grocery store's name, but I know that I see her every single week and she knows me. I don't know her name, but I know her. So that's just a lame excuse.

It really is. It really, really is. And I think that oftentimes what I've found is really help people when they're going through that time where they are just doing everything they can to prospect, everything they can to recruit, everything they can to expose people. And oftentimes those dream stealers, those people that are the naysayers, they'll try to tell you, oh, it's a scam, and all that stuff. Cause they don't understand.

And I tell this person, don't take this personal, the real big difference with most people is that when you take things personal, do you really expect these people to know where you're coming from? I went through some experiences in my life where I had to really find out the hard way that the people that you think that unconditionally love you, that care about you more than anything else, even if that's, you think that's the case. And then you do something that you ask them for full trust. You ask them to understand, you ask them to support you. And it's funny how quickly most of that can go out of the window.

And what I found is that you can't trust people to just support you no matter what, unconditionally. This is what I found. I found that you can trust them to react to you in a way that they will only behave when they know it's what they believe is best for you. Not what you believe is best for you.

And so if they think something is bad for you, even if you say, hey, you trust me, just trust me. You've been there for me my whole life, no matter what, all you had to say was the word "be there," and I'd be there for you. And then all of a sudden I ask you for this and they're like, no, this ain't cool.

This ain't good for you. And no, I'm not going to meet you there at that. And it's like, and people really — I had a hard time with some of that. I took some of it personal. I had to realize that some of those people, it's their experiences that shape their life and the lens that they look at life through, and their intelligence to understand and choose to actually think and look at something and figure it out, or not, or just point a finger at it, judge it, and assume it's something that it's not.

It was really hard for me to not take it personal at times when they just thought, hey, this is a bad deal and I'm not going to support you. That's right. That's right. And a good example of that, Chris, is when I first started with Herbalife, I, of course, had all the enthusiasm in the world. I was really excited, and everybody that I talked to in my family and my friends put me down, told me I was making a mistake, my God, it's a pyramid and all this other crap, that you listen to.

Of course, I was so excited about the fact of what I was doing and knew that I had a winner in Joe Flaherty that none of that stuff would get to me. In fact, my very best friend at the time, when we were electricians, we were called the Quarter Ton Team, because together we weighed a quarter ton. We actually had t-shirts made up, the Quarter Ton Team, all that, and his name was Fat Freddy. My name was Buffalo Bob. And Fat Freddy said to me, he goes, you can't make money selling those kinds of herbs, Bob, with Herbalife, right?

So that was it. I actually distanced myself from those people, that were the naysayers, the negative people. I distanced myself from him. He was my best friend. I walked away from him because I didn't want that negative input.

And the funny thing is, that was in 1992. Okay. In 1990, what was it, 97? I don't remember the exact years, but a few years later, I'd already made a couple million dollars with Herbalife.

I hadn't really had much communication with Fat Freddy. His name was Marshall, with Marshall since then. And I had just decided to make the move from California to Hawaii, went over to Hawaii. We found our home, and it was a beach front house on Luana Bay, right around the corner from Hunama Bay. This was a beautiful, beautiful home, like on an acre of property with a guard gate in the front of it, electric fences, our view out the back of the house was Diamond Head.

I used to kayak every morning in the water when I get up, it was just absolutely beautiful. So I took a bunch of pictures of that house. We went over and we got the house and we came back to California to move. I said, you know what? I got to go see my Fat Freddy and tell him goodbye.

Cause I'm moving from California to Hawaii. So I went over and I knocked on his door and he opened the door, and it was like, he didn't recognize me, because I'd lost all the weight, shaved my beard, cut my hair. He didn't recognize me. It was like, ah, come on in. We went out back and we started talking and reminiscing.

And all of a sudden I pulled out these pictures from my pocket, and I said, hey Marshall, I want you to see where I'm moving. And now when he started looking at these pictures of this house on the water in Hawaii, and I'm watching him, and he's taking these pictures one at a time, like he's looking at them like, no way, my God, no way, no way, no way. Right, now I tell him goodbye. I moved to Hawaii. I wasn't there more than a week, and I get a phone call from Marshall saying, here's my credit card.

Sign me up. So that year, I think my entire family came on board. You're in the business, but they all put me down. They all told me I was going the wrong direction. And within four or five years, every one of them came on board.

So if anybody's giving you a hard time or putting you down, the people that love you the most, that care about you because they think they're doing what's right for you, as long as you know what you're doing right in your heart and your head and you totally believe it, do not listen to those people. Do not let them steal your dream. Because if you do, they're just going to drag you right back down where you were. And the hope's going to go away. The opportunity is going to go away and you're going to have the same things that you always had.

What's the definition of insanity? It's doing the same thing every day, expecting different results, and you'll never get out of that. So you got to get your mind set and you got to get a belief and you got to get a dream and you got to hang on to it and you got to not let anybody take it from you. Nobody. Until you get where you want to be.

I don't settle for second best. The last thing I want to do when I sign up to do something is be in the bottom part of the company. You got to be in the top. You got to strive to do better than everybody, and if you do, you will. But if you settle for mediocrity, or for, I'm doing okay, that's all you'll ever do.

So get that dream, get that drive. Don't let anybody take it from you. Get out there and kick ass and take names. That's all I got to say. That's what I'm talking about.

That's it right there. Wow. I'm going to cut some of this up into some sound bites and make a big — I was thinking about it the other day. I thought, man, I got some good sound bites, from these interviews.

And I'm just going to grab a couple of them and put them all on a tape, put some music on it, and give it to everybody. Just because you just encapsulated it beautifully. Really, whether it's just a network marketing company or it's an affiliate company like Empower Network. It's not really a network marketing type company, although the concept is similar.

Right. It's the same thing, because it's people that don't understand it and resist what they don't understand. It's entrepreneurialism at its best is what it is. That's what it is. Very well put.

Very well put. Bob, it has been a pleasure, my friend. This has been awesome. I'm pumped. I don't even know what to do now.

I want to walk, get up and do some jumping jacks or something. I'm pumped. You're amazing. I mean, the energy you have. I mean, ladies and gentlemen, this is the kind of energy you have when you don't let people rob you of your energy and bring you down every day.

This is the kind of energy and zest and fire for life that you can have. Right here is Bob Anderson and your living template, my friend. I appreciate that. You guys are great. I really, really appreciate everything you guys are all doing.

Yeah. Thank you. And we're going to keep doing it. And just keep being a cheerleader for us, man.

And no, I'm going to keep taking advantage of it. What are you talking about? That's right. Well, that's why we built it. So thank you very much.

Bottom of my heart. This has been awesome. And I really do appreciate it. My pleasure. All right, Bob.

We'll talk to you later, bud. Take care. You're listening to a private recording and a nondisclosure Empower Network customer training. The principles and strategies in this audio can be applied in any business. Although these techniques, philosophies and strategies may have worked for someone, no one can guarantee that they will work for you. We report real average earnings updated daily at www.empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot PHP. The purchase of this or any other audio is not required to earn money in our affiliate compensation plan. And you can decide to not continue to buy these forever at any time. We hope, however, that these ideas and strategies will assist you in building a profitable long term business.

Success takes hard work, determination, skill and consistent effort. Please refer to our average earnings at www.empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot PHP.